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Tim Scott to succeed Jim DeMint in Senate

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley appointed tea party Rep. Tim Scott Monday to succeed resigning Sen. Jim DeMint, making him the first African-American Republican to serve in the U.S. Senate in more than three decades and the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction.

Race and history aside, Haley hailed Scott as a unique political talent with a keen understanding of business and “the value of a dollar.”

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Tim Scott accepts Senate seat

Gov. Haley chooses Tim Scott

Rep. Tim Scott's Capitol Hill fans

“What I will also tell you, and it is very important to me as a minority female, is that Congressman Scott earned this seat,” Haley said at the state Capitol in Columbus, flanked by Scott, DeMint and other members of the congressional delegation. Haley is Indian-American.

“He earned this seat for the person that he is. He earned this seat for the results he has shown. He earned this seat for what I know he is going to do in making South Carolina and making our country proud.”

The news conference was part welcome party for Scott, part send off for conservative icon DeMint, who is stepping down in January to become president of The Heritage Foundation.

“There is no one who can fill his shoes, there is no one who can carry on that torch,” Haley said. “But I also think this is a new day.”

Haley’s pick is a historic one. Scott, 47, who grew up poor in North Charleston, S.C., will become the first African-American senator from the South since the 1880s, as well as the only African-American in the chamber. Illinois Democrat Roland Burris, who was appointed to replace Barack Obama in the Senate, last served in the chamber in November 2010.

Scott’s selection also gives the GOP a prominent African-American voice in the Senate just a month after the party suffered a drubbing at the polls among minority voters. Exit polls showed that more than 90 percent of blacks voted for Obama.

“This is truly an historic moment for the Palmetto State from a governor who’s broken more than a few barriers in her own career,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement.

Upon being introduced by Haley, Scott asked for a moment of silence for the victims of the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., and praised his “Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” He acknowledged his mother, Frances Scott, who was sitting in the audience and taught him that sometimes “love has to come at the end of a switch.”

“My mother did not quit on me,” he said.

As talks to avert the “fiscal cliff” continue, Scott signaled he would continue in the tradition of DeMint, drawing attention to the nation’s $16 trillion debt.

“Rep. Scott embodies our American dream. He is a man of faith, a small businessman, and a consistent voice for common sense reforms. And even more important, he's easily as big of an idiot ******* as Jim DeMint."

Scott, 47, will become the first African American senator from the South since Reconstruction, as well as the only African American in the upper chamber.

massfreethinker: Dec. 17, 2012 - 10:59 AM EST

Token Scott, er Tim Scott, welcome to circus.

Not such a "free thinker" after all, are you?

Are you embarrassed that the Democrat party, that consistently gets over 90% of the African American vote, couldn't find a single African American Democrat to run and win a Senate seat?

If Deval Patrick decides to run for John Kerry's Senate seat, should it be vacated, will you also consider him a "token" or are you only a "token" when you don't run for the official racist party of America, the Democrats?

ahh the libturds.. oh so tolerant.. NOT.. will attack him because he is a black man who is getting off their plantation... already the charges of Token and uncle Tom .. black people are not allowed off the Dem plantation... even though the Dem plantation has become a haven for communists, morons, and insane libturds.

ahh the libturds.. oh so tolerant.. NOT.. will attack him because he is a black man who is getting off their plantation... already the charges of Token and uncle Tom .. black people are not allowed off the Dem plantation... even though the Dem plantation has become a haven for communists, morons, and insane libturds.

welcome aboard.. Unlike those on the left who will and have been calling you a token.,. your a 1st place winner.. a breath of fresh air after all the TOKENS they have on the left.. they will be giving you a hard time you look strong enough to withstand it.. to stick to your convictions and fight for the common man..,,you are not just the start of GOOD people of color serving your going to be the leader.. only wish you were from my state of IL.. where they keep people of color in chains with the Democratic machine,, GOD bless you and give you strength,,

why is it IF a person of COLOR is picked to a postition it's a TOKEN.. ??? goes to show that TOLLERENCE is NOT what the LEFT SOCIALIST is all about is it??? GUESS they don't like hearing the truth from a man/women of COLOR.. the would rather have the BLACK SLAVE OWNERS keeping the blacks in line by voting for BLACK SOCIALISTS whom just want to control other blacks YOUR a sad lot over on the left.. NO BRAINS just MOUTH..

Democrats actually "elect" their black senators.. Republicans, in the words of Rush Limbaugh, use Affirmative action to appoint theirs.. this guy is an unelected senator....the Gop voters of South Carolina would never have voted for such a man.

Seems the left ONLY thinks a black person is of value IF they are a Democrat.. which they only run so they can have Black DEMOCRATS control the black population knowing the Black do vote 90% for a Democrat..and higher IF that Democrat is BLACK.. Maybe it's time the black population sees what a REAL Black person who CARES about ALL is like.. hope he has a LONG and GLOWING career,.,

He's a successful black man who is not dependent on the liberal welfare system, therefore he needs to be immediately attacked by the racist left. We can not have other black people seeing this and deciding that they too can think for themselves.

Other than Obama, half-white, raised by white grandparents, "celebrity" candidate who had about a three week engagement in the Senate before his star turn in the Oval Office, just who are the elected black senators you're so proud about?